JoeyRattlesnake

You’re not going to build a stable program at this level. If you’re successful, you get poached. Building the “next Gonzaga” is never going to happen. In order to be stable you have to be willing to invest and we know UB ain’t about that.

Chiming in for the first time, and apologize if it's been said before... a Ben McCollum hire would feel awfully Lance Leipold-ish. Established, middle-aged guy with tremendous success at a lower level. We can only hope it yields similar results. His absence of D1 coaching experience at any level is a bit concerning, but I remain steadfast that the only way to have success at a mid-major level, like UB, is to hire rising stars. You've got to hope for a few years of excellence while the young coach establishes themselves, rinse and repeat. Hiring veteran coaches with .500 records will get you... well, .500 records. And ain't nobody got time for that. Go Bulls

Agree with the overall sentiment here. Rebuilding year and it will take time to develop chemistry. That, and given we play arguably our toughest non-conference schedule ever with UConn, WVU and Michigan State all on the docket, I think we'll be hard-pressed to enter MAC play with a .500 record. And we all know how tough the MAC can be, so best case scenario we're 6-6 entering MAC play and a great year would be 12-6 in conference play... we're looking at 18-12 or so. Clearly not any at-large conversations happening with that resume, so it's as it always is... win the tourney or else.

I'll believe Whitesell can win big when I see it. I've been very underwhelmed with our clock management and overall shot discipline the last two years. I think the best we can hope for is a top 2 seed in Cleveland and a run to a 13-seed. Nate is proving that he was who we thought he was... an elite coach. And it takes an elite coach to get a MAC team to a 10-seed or lower.

I see this year being the norm, not the exception, with Whitesell at the helm

Chiming in here. I'm not privy to all the behind-the-scenes details, but it would be my opinion that we kept Whitesell to keep the roster intact (Williams, Graves, Segu) and sacrificed a lot of the equity Oats and Hurley had built. Those two had built Buffalo into a desirable mid-major coaching position. This was a place that, clearly, a coach could win at and spring board his career. This hire will set us back. And unless things change quickly (either Whitesell turns it around or a change is made) we will burn all of that progress to the ground and have to restart. Maybe I'm dreaming here, but I had visions of growing this thing. I truly felt that we could become, not a Gonzaga per se, but a VCU or a Wichita State. Perennial conference chanps with an occasional down year. The nation would know UB. But now, I truly struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I see another 18 - 22 win season for two more years and then being faced with the decision... is that good enough? 20 wins, some success in Cleveland, but likely not conference titles? I know it's early and I'm likely over-reacting, but I see Whitesell being very Reggie-esque. Again, 18 - 22 wins a year, an occasional trip to the championship in Cleveland but dreams of a run in the tournament or frankly, even getting there, have quickly faded. Man... last year was fun. What if had not run into Tech in that round of 32? I guess we'll never know.

I wholeheartedly agree and tweeted about this the other night. You could argue we have more raw talent than previous years, but we do not have a true leader. Last year we had CJ and Perk to go to when we needed a bucket, just look at the WVU game. Graves is a very solid complementary player with tons of skill, he just does not have that killer instinct, in my opinion. Something needs to change in a hurry or else we are looking at a Tuesday, On-Campus MAC Tourney game come March. We need a bye to Cleveland to have a shot. On a positive note, this team has proven they can beat anyone in the conference on any given night. Unfortunately, they have also proven they can lose to anyone on any given night. Go Bulls!

Just catching up on the rest of the posts. While going 10-20, getting hot in Cleveland and making the tournament isn’t ideal, it is what it’s all about. Getting your team talked about and analyzed for the better part of a week by the entire nation is worth so much. Then pulling off an upset, like we did two years ago, will be remembered for years to come.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, today and opening night against Dartmouth we’re bad. Each has made me panic and lose all hope of building a sustainable program beyond Oats, but parody throughout the country is a real thing. UK loses to Evansville at Rupp, Duke lose to Stephen F Austin at Cameron, Cincinnati lose tonight to Colgate. You’re seeing it night in and night out. This year, like every previous year before last year will come down to Cleveland. let’s hope the figure it out by then.

I'm really disappointed this morning. I felt like last night was a huge litmus test for us. Win and "hey, we're still here", lose and "welp, we've got to win in Cleveland". I never expected another 32-4 season like last year, but I was hoping to continue building a solid, top-25 type program. I think there was a lot of really poor shots, specifically from Johnson & Segu. Johnson threw up some very ill advised 3's in crucial moments in the 2nd half. I also did not see the same pace that we're accustomed to. The first half was frantic, but I felt we had a lot of half-court sets that led to rejections at the rim. Lastly, I'm very, very nervous about Whitesell. I feel we made a hire to try and salvage the current roster, but did not make one for the long-term success of our program. Hurley & Oats created some really solid equity, enough that we could have got a rising star. Perhaps I'm wrong, hopefully I'm wrong... but time will tell. We need to win these next two in Charleston and get either Vandy or DePaul. Got to.

Just following up here. Does anyone know how the guys looked last Saturday? This is going to be such an interesting year. Certainly we will not win 32 games again, as I anticipate some early season growing pains, but you can't deny the talent level. It might actually be higher than last year (*gasp*). The biggest problem I see is a go-to scorer. Maybe that's Graves, maybe that's Johnson, but I don't see someone who can get their own shot and carry the team when necessary, like CJ the past couple.

Where do we stand? Hardnett got his waiver. Any news on Mballa? any others out there still pending?

I’ll go a step further. That ain’t gonna happen. I hope I’m wrong but we would need to beat UConn, Xavier and Florida. UF is going to be a top-5 preseason team. Xavier is top 25-ish.

I’ll go a step further. That ain’t gonna happen. I hope I’m wrong but we would need to beat UConn, Xavier and Florida. UF is going to be a top-5 preseason team. Xavier is top 25-ish.

Deeper 1-10? That seems optimistic, but I like it.